The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-08-25
THE OPIUM FARMER.
The Wretched Hindoo Who Remains
Poor, With Wealth Always Within
His Grasp

The Wretched Hindoo Who Remains
Poor, With Wealth Always Within
His Grasp.
From the NeiD York Sun.
There is nothing the soil can produce
that can be cultivated with more profit to
the husbandman than the poppy, if it is cul-
tivated in the right country" said the head
of large drug importing house, land yet
there are no farmers in the world who are
so universally and perpetually proverty-
stricken as the growers Of the poppy. The
many thousands of people who are engaged
III the production of opium in lndia-and l
speak from personal knowledge obtained on
extended visits to the provinces of Benares,
Bahar, and Malwah-live year after year
from hand to mouth, when they might reap
fortunes by a very little energy and extra
eXertlons. The opium farmer of India lives
and labors with but three objects in view.
These are, first, to decorate his wife profusely
with ornaments, to eat off a brass plate, and
to be in position to make great display
when his Oldest son is married. As far as
the wifes lewelry is concerned, that is mat
ter of religious duty, the Hindoo religion
demanding that certain ornaments must be
worn by married women, and the real
wealth, If wealth it may be called, OF the
native landowner is in his wife's jewels, and
whatever a husbandman may gain by his
poppy culture he Immediately invests in
Jewelry, the same as the Yankee farmer
places his money in bond and mortgage. II
the Indian farmer on marrying cannot do
any better in the way of jewelry, he must
give the bride he obtains lead ornaments.
This keeps the religious form, but the very
first year he has been energetic enough to
raise good opium crop the lead Jewelry
gives place to silver or gold. On the mar
riage of his oldest son, an Indian farmer will
waste in weeks Publication the entire saw
lngs of years of privation.
1T is a strange sight to see the Hindoo
women at work in the fields, gathering
poppy juice or picking weeds, decked out
with huge gold rings, bracelets, anklets
and chains, and wearing but single short
petticoat and gay colored wrap of light
texture. The wants of the Indian rGtdt, as
the farmer is called, are very few and SIM
pie. A matched roof. covering four con-
fined mud walls, shelter him, and there are
families who have lived for hundreds of
years, generation after generation, in the
same hovel-like homestead The farmers
suit of everyday working clothes is very
scant cloth fastened about his loins. His
dress up suit is big cotton sheet folded
about him. His entire family, from him
self down to the smallest child he owns,
that is not to small too crawl about among
the poppy plants and know the difference
between a weed and poppy, share in the
toll of the field. The small children are
clothed Just as they came into the world,
and appear comfortable, no matter how
hot the sun shines or how low the tempera-
ture may fall-and in November, Decem-
Der, January and February, when the
bulk of the field work is done, the weather
is quite cool enough for at least summer
clothing.
These happy go-lucky tillers of the soil
depend entirely on the government to keep
them going year after year in the matter OF
farming. Thus the government advances the
poppy seed that is to be sown, loans the
money by which the land is irrigated, and the
bullocks purchased to carry on the work.
The cultivator will not till more of his land
than he can manage without other help
than his own immediate family, and conse-
quently patch leased to any one farmer
that is half an acre in extent is an exception
ally large holding. The one-twentieth of an
acre, called bigkn, is the favorite quantity
of land for farmer to seed down with pop
pies, but he will put in tenth or a sixth on
a pinch. There are untold advantages in the
growing of opium for extended enterprise,
but the roint viii not expend the smallest
Indian coin to acquire these advantages and
with it great gain, for the profit in opium
production is large, owing to the policy of
the government in paying large prices for
the product as means of precluding illicit
traffic in it.
1.-THE farmers themselves have no direct
intercourse with the government. Each
village of opium growers select some native
as their representative or agent with the
authorities. He is called the ldmbdrdGr.
1t is his business to give estimates to the
government agents as to the probable yield
of the farms he represents, on which the
loans and advances may be based. He man
ages every transaction between the govern
ment and the farmers, and for his SER
vices he gets commission on all the opium
he causes to be delivered to what are known
as the weighing stations, points where
the product of certain districts is carried
by the growers and turned over to the
agents.
'The opium gathering begins in January
or February. The poppy flowers have then
given way to the seed pods, which are
lanced in the afternoon. The thick gum,
the opium, exudes from the cut made in the
pod, and at daylight the next morning the
entire family of a rdiot are astir in the
fields, scraping the opium from the pods, the
incisions being carefully closed again, by
rubbing the finger sharply up and down ON
the cuts, which CLUES them shut. If care
fully treated, the pods will expand literally
to six landings. The opium is at first placed
Ill DTHSS NPSStlS, dlltl biiS Jew JlltI may
here to it is drained off Then it is kneaded
like dough until it's at the proper consis-
tency, when it is packed in new earthen
iars and is ready to be carried to the weigh
ing stations.
''The order TO fetch in the years crop of
opium is generally given early in April, and
that is the most interesting season of the
year to the TdjGt and his family. Each
farmer is notified that on certain day he
must be at the weighing station Of his dis
trict for the testing and weighing. An en-
tire village men, women, and children, join
in joyous procession when the notice is re-
ceived, and, laden with the jars Of opium,
start for the destination They travel only
at night, as the heat of the sun is so great
at that season Of the year that the journey
would be unendurable All day they lounge
in the groves aud shady lanes, Teasing and
joining in various recreations. These way
side camps of the opium villages are pic
turesque sights to the traveller through these
provinces. When group arrive at the
weighing station they are ranged in long
lines before the examiner, who examines the
opium of each one and marks the quality
and weight of each jar with piece of chalk
on the side of the jar. The examiners are
experts, and can tell by the feeling whether
a sample of opium is adulterated, but they
put it to chemical tests as well. After the